So yesterday at last the sun shone and the snow had melted and so we drove over to Annie’s stables to collect the manure for the hotbed. It’s surprisingly difficult to source manure ‘fresh’ – as it were. Just as every item on a restaurant menu comes with a small pack of needless adjectives like delicious attached, the word manure is rarely seen without its attached qualifier well rotted. We’ve asked high and low and our search for the freshest, smelliest and hottest manure has met with head shaking and occasionally patronising hints that we don’t know what we really want. So as always we fell back on a friend who lives in one of my old parishes who was pleased to help out, and even sent photos of the growing pile to keep us focused and cheerful. Yesterday we lined the back of our little car to stop any leaks from the bags from soaking into the seats and drove over.
My guess is that I shovelled about 300Kg of the stuff into bags (we always save the old ones they’re terribly useful) and lugged it into the back of the car which was pretty flat on the springs by the time I finished. Then we drove back to the allotment while Madame amused herself by swatting copious numbers of manure flies that had decided to come with us. Everything has to be wheelbarrowed about 100yards down narrow paths from the allotment site car park and so by the time I’d tipped all the bags into the hotbed frame I was aching just about everywhere. I was pretty glad that I didn’t build the frame any bigger because against all expectations the manure was simply swallowed up. I really thought I’d have quite a bit left over, but that certainly didn’t happen. Still, it’s all done now and today’s job is to cap the bed with a mixture of soil and proper compost and then cover it and wait for it to heat up.
Our site is divided into two halves which are nominally organic and non-organic. As I was unloading the car I fell into a conversation with a man who had come across from the organic half and we had one of those blokey chats that men have, which are more concerned with rangefinding than sharing – each of us trying to find out enough about the other to orientate ourselves. As we drifted from wheelbarrow punctures to carrot varieties we finally ventured into contentious ground. I said ” really we’re all organic here except for one man, two plots across, who used Roundup to clear his plot.” He put on a most virtuous face and said – “Roundup? I wouldn’t go near that stuff.” And so the conversation drifted on about permissable chemicals and the Soil Association rules and then, out of the blue he said – “I use that other stuff, glyphosate it’s called, but I don’t spray it I just paint it on the leaves.” I was speechless.
Getting manure is hard! (Unless you keep the horses). My mother always takes a bag and a shovel with her when walking the dogs in the field close to her house – to pick up whatever the horses from a nearby stable drop during their rides 🙂
My Mum used to do exactly the same – she had a little coal shovel and bucket especially for the purpose. But our house was engulfed by the city and we never saw horses any more. My Grandfather swore by what he called “sheeps truffles” and would always extol their virtues – “there’s more heart in a sheep’s fart” was one of his sayings.
love it! in russian we have “goat nuts” 🙂
bookmarked!!, I like your website!